Sweet Peas

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT SWEET PEAS - PAGE 2

Fragrant sweet peas are cool-season annuals whose seeds, like those of alyssum, larkspur, pansies, bachelor's buttons and calendula, can be sown directly in rich garden soil once it has thawed and dried out so it is no longer mucky. Renee Shepherd of Renee's Garden Seeds, who sells 26 sweet-pea varieties, says the seeds will take longer to germinate in cool Chicago soil than where she grows them in Felton, Calif. And because that will push the plants' bloom toward our hot summer, she suggests planting them in a spot where they will get "a little afternoon shade" after a morning of full sun. Before you sow the seeds, she says, nick the seed coat with a pair of nail clippers so they will sprout faster.

Confused about which carbohydrates you should be eating? Welcome to the club. "It's the biggest lack-of-consensus issue in the U.S. diet today," said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health. "We don't have a standard method for assessing their quality. " Carbohydrates, the most common of the three energy sources we get from food (the others are fat and protein), reside in the vast majority of our food, prominently in grains, vegetables, legumes and fruits.

Add sugar snap peas, Vidalia onions and asparagus to the grocery list this week to learn new microwaving techniques. Mike Klackle, produce buyer for Dominick's Finer Foods stores, says this is the prime season for sugar snap peas and Vidalia onions. "Can you imagine anything better than a combination of sugar snap peas and Vidalia onions?" Klackle asked. Sugar snap peas, a relative newcomer to produce markets, are a cross between a garden and snow pea. Totally edible, the pods range from 2 1/2 to 3 inches long and must have their strings removed before cooking.

When Tina Asmus decided to use an old toilet as a flower planter in her front yard, she couldn't stop at just one. So the Lakemoor resident asked her friend the scrap collector to pick up another discarded toilet, and now two potty planters flank her home's front porch. Trouble is, some of her neighbors don't care so much for her landscaping, even if the porcelain pots are filled with lilies, sweet peas and petunias. Someone filed a complaint, and now police, citing the village's public nuisance ordinance, have given Asmus 30 days to remove the commodes.

A Lakemoor woman has won her 18-month fight to display two toilets in her front yard as flower planters. A McHenry County judge this week rejected the village's argument that Tina Asmus had violated Lakemoor's public nuisance ordinance. Flush with victory, Asmus says her toilet art will stay put. "I always believed in justice so it wasn't a big surprise to me that I won," said Asmus, a stay-at-home mom. "This world is way too serious. " Lakemoor Mayor Todd Weihofen was indeed not laughing Friday.

"This one is jade," said the weaver, "crossed with champagne-bronze. This one is emerald, with weathered brass." Linda Thompson breeds shimmering silks the way Mendel bred sweet peas, crossing colors on her loom the way a geneticist might cross genes. A textile designer from East Norwalk, Conn., she came to the Merchandise Mart recently to unveil Beau Thai, a line of 54 silk and cotton fabrics inspired by repeated trips to Thailand. "I love the Thai colors," she said. "Magenta, cadmium yellows, deep saturate colors in the orchids.

There's no question that fruits and vegetables are an essential part of a healthy diet and provide benefits to body and mind that go far beyond conventional nutrition. Most are rich in phytochemicals, whose natural power to support health and combat disease is only now under serious study. But industrial agriculture relies on hundreds of chemicals to target insects and diseases that can afflict crops. Unfortunately, many remain after the crops are harvested, even after produce is washed at home.

Why is a tree like a pea? Well, not all are. But some familiar trees, such as redbuds and honey locusts, do have something important in common with peas, beans and peanuts: With a little help, they can take nitrogen out of the air. That's a big deal for plants, says Kunso Kim, head of collections and curator at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle. Nitrogen is an essential nutrient that enables plants to build stems and leaves. And since 78 percent of the earth's atmosphere is nitrogen, you would think there would be plenty.

CLIP TIP Early birds get to sales Even before the gardening season truly starts, plant sales are showing up. An early bloomer is the Friends of Indiana Dunes native plant sale from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 3 at the Indiana Dunes State Park pavilion, Indiana Highway 49 at Lake Michigan. Offerings range from rue anemone and white trillium to sensitive fern and prairie dropseed to pin cherry and fragrant sumac. Botanist Barbara Plampin will speak at 9 a.m. on "The Wonders of Spring Woodland Wildflowers" and Connor Shaw, owner of Possibility Place Nursery in Monee, will speak at 11 a.m. on "Trees and Shrubs Native to Northwest Indiana."

Here's our fourth--but not last--offering of suggestions for perfect presents for the home. For those of you who like to live on the edge (we're talking time-wise, as well as design), we'll have one last round of gift ideas for you next week. Gifts of serenity Creative souls have brought prayer to the popular table fountain or have taken the fountain off the table completely and put it up on the wall. Maura Singer Williams' table fountains (left) are inscribed with the Buddhist metta prayer: "May all beings be well and happy.